Brendan Perkins is an incredibly busy artist. His Bandcamp page (www.brendanperkins.bandcamp.com ) lists thirty releases, and this extremely talented and pleasant multi-instrumentalist continues to provide top drawer pastoral music, and now releases Stories from the Old Church Lane on 5th April. I adore the music, words, and sense of rural Britain, and the finest artists who convey that serenity, community, eccentricity, have always touched me – for example Big Big Train and Tull in their folk period. Perkins deserves to be included in that roll call.

We have six pieces of music. The opening piece, Another Eveningtime, has been pre-released, and it is embedded for you below. Brendan’s lovely partner, Helen Flunder, provides additional vocals on this. A walk in a new home, a beer beside a lake, the moon shining on lovers. Almost eight minutes of music opening with the most delicious guitar burst, and you are, indeed, back in the metaphorical arms of Perkins, the keys providing a beautiful soundscape before a rock out, the first instance of that bass guitar thundering out, played to perfection, recalling the halcyon Squire days. The protagonists sing well together, and the interplay between them in the quieter “and by the tree” passage is rather lovely before that bass thumps back into your consciousness, a guitar solo aching with feeling. A new era arrives, the choral impact lovely lighting up the closing passage. An extremely strong start to proceedings.

Olivia Ruth, a traditional village shop where you can buy all you need, and much that you don’t, the song starts with a festive set of jingle notes, and that bass guitar again thumping out its lead notes. Seriously, any scholar of how to perform the four-stringed instrument needs to listen to this album, whilst the ghostly guitar adds timbre to the song, some lovely symphonic keys rising above. The song to me doesn’t just portray the shop itself, but the enigmatic nature of the subject, and, as importantly, in the instrumental passages, especially the swirling keys, the journey to the shop, full of anticipation. What are you going to find? There is a strong commercial sensibility to this song, one that really deserves to be played on radio stations which appreciate fine work.

Amelia’s Wedding. One who was shy, but her mother always knew that Mr Right was somewhere, waiting to be found. The day of the wedding itself might be stormy, but all fears wash away, the start of a loving journey through life together. You trust in love. Of course, such stories and scenes are not confined to rural England, but that special environment does add more than a little romance to it, perhaps far more than Piccadilly Circus. The opening orchestral notes presage the happy event, and Bren’s vocals on this are tone perfect, a tale of a well-loved woman finding her way. The bass again underpins everything here so strongly, and there is some dextrous guitar work, a very catchy beat that I think one could happily dance to at the post-ceremony party before the beautiful pastoral takes centre stage, the ceremony itself heralded by a crisp guitar solo above the bassline.

Bram’s Return (from Metro Fair) is next, a song of crunching through the city, record stores, fairs, but returning to his life in the bucolic calm of the country, leaving all the city lights behind. It is a long song, eight and a half minutes, starting with crisp and clear acoustic guitar overlaid by gentle synths. The guitar work, electric and acoustic, is very strong on this, different styles used to strong effect in a track which is perhaps the best example in recent years of mindfulness in music. The acoustic guitar lead is gorgeous, as is the electric solo taking us to denouement.

Ned and Mary are two elderly residents looking back on a life of adventure, including war, and love, their companionship being the one constant. This is an extremely gentle song, the wartime short narrative distinctly darker, the bass guitar again at the heart of the song, but Perkins showing off his keyboard skills as well, including a delicate piano accompanying the central guitar solo, which is ghostly.

We close with Summer’s End, a song about the harvest festival celebrations, something mainly lost to urbanites, but still at the heart of strong farming communities. From the off, it is a joyous noise, the guitar lead crying in joy against the drumbeat of the synths, rhythmic and funky skins and bass combining to symphonic effect. A meditation of life itself, which, incidentally, could be applied to the whole album, a much-needed remedy for the relentless gloom and death spiral this country of ours seems to be in if you only read the papers or listen to the news. Perkins here offers us a timely reminder that there is much more to life than GDP & etc.

Very highly recommended. Another winner from an artist who really does deserve serious national attention.